THE West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has again found itself fending off a viciously rising ball from its counterpart in India.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has given the West Indies Cricket Board until Tuesday, January 27 to pay up US$41.97 million or face court action.

The action stems from the aborted tour of India by the West Indies cricket team last October, following a pay dispute between members of the West Indies squad, their union, the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) and the West Indies Cricket Board.

In a letter dated January 20 and sent to the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretariat, headquartered in Georgetown, Guyana, to the attention of Secretary General of Caricom Irwin LaRoque, as well as West Indies Cricket Board President Whycliffe Cameron, the BCCI said that the time had come for the WICB to start playing its strokes as far as compensating the BCCI was concerned.

“By our letter dated 31st October 2014, the BCCI called for a written proposal from WICB detailing the terms on which it would make good the losses suffered by the BCCI on account of the sudden arbitrary withdrawal of its team midway during the 2014 tour of India,” the Hon Secretary of the BCCI, Sanjay Patel, wrote.

“When Caricom intervened in the dispute and requested BCCI to hold off on its claims for a period of 40 days from the deadline stipulated in its claim letter, the BCCI acquiesced to the same in the hope that an acceptable resolution would be achieved through Caricom’s able mediation.

“However, it is with regret that the BCCI finds itself in a position where its expectations have remained wholly unfulfilled, with there being no progress in finding a solution that is acceptable to the BCCI, despite the 40-day time period having long since elapsed,” Patel wrote.

Initial hopes by WICB officials that the BCCI would withdraw its claim have now been dashed by India’s latest move, as WICB officials have been caught off guard without even getting a chance to settle on one of cricket’s sticky pitches.

For the BCCI, it remains adamant that it must go the whole journey in settling debt accrued, despite the belated invitation and subsequent embrace of the Sri Lanka cricket team when the West Indies backed out.

“The BCCI cannot any longer hold off from pursuing its claims against WICB in the appropriate forum being the courts in India. We trust that Caricom will understand our position,” Patel wrote, a position which ushered in the ‘lifter’.

“If the WICB fails to comply with the requisitions contained in our letter dated 31st October 2014 within a period of seven days from receipt of this letter, the BCCI shall initiate legal proceedings in the appropriate forum against WICB without further intimation.

“Needless to add, this letter is addressed to you without prejudice to any other rights and/or remedies available in law, including the accrued right to claim damages and the discretionary right to reject any proposal of WICB, all of which are reserved by BCCI to the fullest extent permissible in law,” Patel wrote on behalf of the BCCI.

The WICB said Friday that it was preparing a response to the letter. The matter will likely place WICB President Cameron under the microscope, what with elections to choose officers of the WICB coming up in Kingston on March 7.

Cameron, a Jamaican businessman with a background in finance, has already declared that he will be seeking re-election to run the organisation for another two-year term.

It is still uncertain whether or not any other candidate will step forward.